Producer
Leopold Hoesch
Director
Lukas Hoffmann
Producerin
Rebecca Zelt & Vera Bertram
Genre
Dynasties
Broadcaster
WDR
Length
1 x 45'
Editor
Fabian Oberhem
Year
2018
Dynasties in NRW
Die Schokoladenkönige vom Rhein

A place for connoisseurs: the Chocolate Museum in Cologne. Inseparably linked with the names Imhoff and Stollwerck - the chocolate kings from the Rhine. Stollwerck, the family dynasty: for 177 years it stood for "sweets from the Rhine". And Hans Imhoff, the successful entrepreneur from Cologne's Südstadt: he saved the company from bankruptcy in the 1970s and led it to new successes.

For many, his best idea: a museum on the "cultural history of chocolate and cocoa", which Imhoff opened directly on the Rhine in 1993. At the heart of the exhibition, a chocolate fountain where every visitor can taste as much as they like. Since then, the museum and fountain have been a huge success: more than 600,000 visitors come here every year. The Stollwerck company, on the other hand, fared less well in the end under Hans Imhoff's leadership: after serious crises - and shortly before the patriarch's death - the Cologne site was finally closed down in 2005. The end of the reign of the chocolate kings from the Rhine.

First broadcast: Fri, 26 October 2018, 20:15, WDR.

Dynasties in NRW: The Chocolate Kings from the Rhine

A place for connoisseurs: the Chocolate Museum in Cologne. Inseparably linked with the names Imhoff and Stollwerck - the chocolate kings from the Rhine. Stollwerck, the family dynasty: for 177 years it stood for "sweets from the Rhine". And Hans Imhoff, the successful entrepreneur from Cologne's Südstadt: he saved the company from bankruptcy in the 1970s and led it to new successes.

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